Whirly Whirl

I am still a neophyte at this sport of cyclocross but I have already experienced some great race courses. My favorite of the three races that I did in the Pacific Northwest was the Cumberland Cross on the Rock Race. There are numerous reasons why this should not be listed as my favorite race, the most prominent being that it was the day after my encounter with the beaver (whoop, I finally said that without using the F word, amazing what time can do). However, they did offer a $5 discount for all of us that did 'the double' that weekend so it just made sense. Right? Especially since I was so well prepared for the MOMAR and had danced until 2am to help speed up my recovery. I had stayed away from the booze, that should count for something. (there was no way I was drinking any of the Thirsty Beaver, the beaver was not good to me!) So really, if you take into account closing down the party and dancing all night I wasn't doing the double, I was doing the triple!

I practically needed a walker to get around in the morning but I wasn't going to be walking, I was going to be riding. That knee that took a stick the day before almost had half range of motion with the swelling in it and really how much did I need my left shoulder? I carry my cross bike over obstacles on the right. Body inventory complete and off to ride a practice lap. I had a great time pre riding the course, at my limp along leisurely pace it was all good, except I really didn't know where the course went. I just hopped on and started where I was closest and rode around. I was waiting for everyone at the start line, when I was told they were waiting for me at the start line. I barely got there and the race started and I wasn't even on my bike yet. Did I mention yet that I have not mastered a moving mount, not helpful when everyone sprints off the start and I have to swing my leg over the bike. I use the term swing generously because it was done very stiffly and gingerly and with no speed what so ever! Once I got going it was okay except for when I had to dismount and do the high jump. I couldn't lift my legs that high and running was near impossible. I really should have gotten a walker out there. About this point of the race I realized why I got that discount, it was to pay for the large doses of ibuprofen I would be requiring for the next week!

the high jumps on the course

Jason heading into the BMX track

The course wound through trees on the grass and then we got to ride through the BMX park. Of course Jason killed it in his race, but I have to put it out there. He DID NOT do the triple. He was not with Alison and I when we closed down the party! I would have been way faster and nimbler too if I had gotten all that rest;) After the BMX park there was a cool dirt jump section into some sand. At least I think that is what it was. My recollection might not be very accurate because I remember being behind a little kid at one point and there is no way I was that horrible! I think I passed him without pushing him into the ropes, or he could have just dropped me when I was doing one of my incredibly fast hobbling, stand still mounts! We'll never know.

BMX track

The bestest part of the course had to be the whirly whirl. Going into it I was sure I was going the wrong way and going to have a head on with someone, going out was the same way. I still am not sure how they made us go all the way into the center and back out without collisions. It gave me something to ponder the rest of each lap though, when I wasn't thinking about trying to bunny hop the barriers to avoid the remount. With how slow I am at learning this mount, that might be the way to go! The whirly whirl had magical powers and was able to distract me so much that I didn't realize that the finish line was right after it. I was sitting behind a girl at this point, how I caught up is a mystery, and I decided to just wait and take her at the barriers. Cause, I am so good at the barriers? What they heck was I thinking? Which makes me wonder what kind of vortex I had just ridden through!

My fans don't seem to care if I am a complete fledgling!

'You can learn new things in life at any time if you're willing to be a beginner. If you actually like being a beginner, the whole world opens up to you' - Barbara Sher 

Beware of Thirsty Beavers

Best trails ever, that's what the volunteers said was coming up. Woohoo, I could use some of that BC single track love right about now. Remember, I am a mountain biker who did a 100 mile mountain bike race, I have this in the bag. That was what I was thinking when we made the turn onto the Thirsty Beaver trail. About 100 metres in I decided that I had misheard the volunteers and they had said something more like 'beaver tails are evil'. Have I mentioned that it was raining and the trails were wet? Have I also mentioned that I live and ride in Southern California? Well, just to be absolutely clear, mud is not something I am very familiar with and mud was everywhere. Not only that but the roots and logs were very wet and slippery. I felt like I had entered an evil spooky forest.



Seriously, the roots and branches were reaching out to grab me and the mud pits were sinking mud pits where I would get sucked in and never get back out. I was imagining Jason coming back to try and find me and only seeing my John Deer hat floating on the surface. At the same time, I was trying to figure out how the beaver could possibly be thirsty, there was water everywhere I looked. Perhaps, the beaver didn't drink water. This made me start to ponder all that I know about beavers, and I am not ashamed to say I do know a few things about beavers. I'm Canadian and it is our national animal, what did you think I meant? Anyways, I know that the beaver will use it's tail to slap the water to warn other beavers of danger. Um, maybe he was too busy looking for a drink cause the damn beaver didn't warn me and there was danger around every bend.  I also know that beavers feed on trees bark and roots and use the trees to build their homes. With all the stumps that I noticed (mostly I noticed them with my front tire) I figure that this particular beaver is living in his very own McMansion.

This is a hovel compared to what this beaver built!

Beavers also mark their territory by scenting mounds of mud with glandular secretions. By the end of the day, with all the mud I managed to land in and accumulate on me, I was owned by the beaver. The beaver is very graceful in the water and awkward on land. Hm, sounds like me during MOMAR, I was great until we got on land.

Looks friendly enough, but they are vicious!

Not only were there many, many, many mud pits and large logs and roots to contend with, there were also bridges everywhere. After the two earlier (violent) crashes that I had orchestrated, I had to assess my risk and reward. I rode across a few and noticed that the wood was very slippery and the higher the bridge got off the ground, the higher the risk became. Of course, I also had in the back of my mind the royal pain involved in using my health insurance out of country and getting reimbursement and all that rig a ma roll. Mostly though I just didn't trust that I could stay on the bridge, they were not wide. Jason tried to reason with me by saying that they were the width of single track and that I hadn't fallen off the trail. WHERE had he been all day? I mean, did that stick in the middle of the trail ram into his knee? NO, perhaps because the stick wasn't on the trail and I had in fact fallen off the side of the trail several times! My decision was quickly validated when I had walked across a bridge to witness the guy behind me tumble off of it in his attempt to ride. Here is a picture of Jason riding one of the bridges. Look in the background of this photo and you will see me avoiding further injury.

During my encounter with this rather evil and malicious animal the F'ing Thirsty Beaver, and trust me I can not say it without the F bomb, I realized that the only thing the beaver was thirsty for was my blood! Funny thing is all the locals loved the Thirsty Beaver and there is even a shrine to him with sacrificial beers.

Look closely, that F'ing Beaver is smirking!



I guess Jason didn't feel he got to spend enough time with the Thirsty Beaver, or maybe he just hadn't heard me rant and swear enough. Next time, Mr Thirsty Beaver I will be prepared but I will never be a lover of  beaver;)

Adventure

After successfully completing the Leadville trail 100 in August I thought I would be content to sit on the couch and eat my way into hibernation for the winter. Once again I was wrong. I found myself searching for an outlet for all the fitness I had gained over the summer. Of course, I had thrown myself into the world of mud and cowbells but as fun as that was it wasn't really making use of the huge diesel engine that I had built on the bike. Right about then, my mentor Jason suggested we team up for a one day adventure race. Sign me up! Crap, what the heck have I done, I haven't been running, I have no idea how to orienteer, unless they let me use my iPhone, and from what I have heard Jason is notorious for getting lost on the navigational sections. At least I had done some kayak training, well maybe not training, but I had been in a kayak in May. Muscle memory don't fail me now. If nothing else, we would rock the mountain bike sections because after all I had become a mountain biker this year. I knew that section wouldn't cause me any problems. Friday night before the race we packed up the car with 5 bikes, 2 dogs, 3 people and a plethora of gear to make the trek up island to the race venue. Luckily, our kayak would be delivered to the lake for us, we obviously had no room for it.

On our way to adventures

Our journey up island was quite scenic, well from the right hand side of the car, I couldn't see out the left. We got to Cumberland and checked in for our race. Before I go any further in my story telling I need to let everyone know that Jason is usually a contender for overall win at this race. He won't admit it but he is a big deal in these parts, little did they know that he had not imported a ringer but rather an anchor from California. Prior to the start though, no one knew this so I could pretend in my head that I was something too!

Race morning dawned bright and early. We got ourselves to the start. Got the dogs situated and got our gear in the appropriate places. One hour prior to the start we got a map that showed the order of events and a rough idea of where we would be going. The race was to go like this, kayak, mountain bike, run/trek section, mountain bike, urban trek, orienteering. We were to carry all of our gear, fluid, and nutrition with us. Jason carried our mandatory gear, hey, that space blanket might have really slowed me down! Our team was ready to go!

Two people who have never been in Cliff Clavens kitchen

We got about 5 minutes to warm up in the kayak and then we were on the start line. We lined up right at the front because according to my team captain, we wanted open water and no chance of someone t-boning us off the line when they weren't able to steer their boat. We rocked off the start and were paddling like we had paddled together forever. After a super clean and fast start we decided to use brain over brawn and we got ourselves up to a boat that was going straight on the correct line and sat in the draft. Of course a few times we got a little too close, those boys didn't like getting rammed from behind at all! Seems they didn't find my sense of humour very amusing either. Or, it could be that they were annoyed that I kept talking and they were working very hard while I sat in their draft. Maybe, they should get a bigger engine in the back of their boat next time! The paddle was over 10km in distance and we were the first coed team out of the water. If the Canadian National team is looking for paddlers, they can contact me through this blog. That one training session back in May seemed to do the trick, although my arms and upper back felt that the muscle memory was slightly weak!

http://gallery.davesilverphotography.com/momar/cumberland2010/e37f1434c#h3edcdb4c

Once out of the boats we were on to the mountain bikes. Fantastic, this is the one area where I knew I would do well and be just fine. I had ridden all summer, my skills were mad and I was a mountain biker. My amazing biking skills shined for all of 5 minutes. Then I hit the mud, literally. Going through a puddle following Jason's fast wheel I somehow picked up a stick into my front spokes and instantly braked myself. There were some load noises and a cracking sound. I now know that the cracking was the stick but at the time, I wondered if it was my bike or body. Of course, this crash had to be witnessed by all the teams behind us, damn, I wish we had paddled slower! I got up and bloodied and muddied remounted my bike. I told myself that was just a freak incident that could have caught anyone, I was still an amazing mountain biker, I had finished Leadville after all.

We got to the end of that mountain biking stage without any more incidents. I had ridden over roots, mud and managed to get through the windy, twisted narrow BC single track. On the trek stage we set off and made our way up and down steep hillsides and across creeks and freshly logged cuts to all the checkpoints. Jason did a fantastic job planning our route and we made up some time we had lost with my super violent crash earlier. (hey, I'm not embellishing at all, the guy behind me called it violent!)

http://gallery.davesilverphotography.com/momar/cumberland2010/e2615c1f3#h2615c1f3

The trek ended pretty uneventfully after 1 hour and 31 minutes. Not that I am counting the minutes but did I mention that I hadn't run over 1 hour 10 minutes since May 2nd? Not to mention that this running involved steep up and downs, man am I a rock star or what! This next mountain bike stage is going to be great, we are totally going to win our category. How can we not, now that we are back into the stuff I am prepared for? The first climb back onto the bikes I was right into a groove and passed a guys team. Woohoo, we are in it to win it! Lets go after it Jason. For some reason the sticks in Canada have an intense desire to humble me. Just when I thought I was going to really get my groove on a stick jumped out of the bushes and rammed itself into my left knee. Intense pain and instant swelling but only a small puncture wound. After a few minutes of ragged breathing on the side of the trail, I did not cry, we decided to see if I could keep riding. Luckily, we came to a gravel road section but the only thing that was fast about this section was the knee swelling. Jason nursed me along and we got to the next checkpoint where they informed us that we were going to be riding some of the best trails EVER now. I couldn't withdraw now, I wanted to experience this great riding! Onward and upward. (These trails deserve a post of their own so I will skip now to the rest of the race).

The urban trek was eliminated due to the course taking much longer than anticipated (that is a slight hint on my next post) so we headed directly to the orienteering section. Now, because my team mate has a reputation for sometimes losing his way navigating, I was prepared and provided him with extra incentive for staying on course. Even though I eat vegan, I have one exception to that, for pure survival reasons I will stray from my plant based diet. I did reassure Jason that I would not kill to eat flesh but if it was dead, I would eat it. Since, I have much more body fat than he does, I was pretty sure which of us would last longer! This seemed to work,  not only did we not get lost we managed to find all the checkpoints quickly and efficiently and make our way to the finish line. Woohoo, Two people who have never been in Cliff Clavens kitchen have finished MOMAR, despite a harrowing encounter with a beaver!

Adventure is worthwhile in itself- Amelia Earhart